A sad start to the year,
as we lost our 'half a pet' - Austin, the seldom seen cat, to a
tumour.

Once again we were lucky
enough to enjoy 2 weeks in Tenerife in January......

Early morning on the
balcony

The camcorder doesn't go
to Tenerife, so there's plenty of time to mess around with cameras....

Whether we're talking
sunsets.....

Or the moon ....

Slimline Denise, who lost
2 stone in the latter half of 2011, and kept it off throughout 2012

A lovely sunset, the
southern tip of La Gomera visible to the right of the sunset....

Time to deal with that
mid-life crisis !

Denise poses on Mount
Teide, a dormant volcano. There were loads of pungent gasses around, but
apparently some of them were coming from the mountain !

Here you can see the cable
car station (and pylons) near the summit. It a third of the height of
Everest, yet it's only about 11 miles from Playa De Las Americas, and you
can get within 500' of the summit by road and cable car.....

And this is the view
looking back towards the southwest - Playa De Las Americas to the left, and the charmingly
named Puerto del Colon (where we stay) on the right.

One last look as we head
for home.

The good news in
January was that Chris had got a MOM's job at Reading.

At the end of March we
headed off to Essex for Wally Low's 60th birthday bash.......

The old gits - yes, John
Sullivan, even you're an old git now !

The Spring of 2012
actually started quite well - this is the garden of The Cross Guns at
Avoncliff in early April.

The 'leaving do' at
Cardiff in early April

.....followed a few days
later by a birthday celebration.

Spring boating in 2012.
The camera isn't lying, but this was in fact the most rain and flood
affected week that we've ever had. Here Darryl and Babs Williams
wonder where it all went wrong....

..and Darryl ponders how
he came to be getting a boat-handling demonstration from Fred Scuttle !

Denise and Bonzo negotiate
the what's left of the towpath between the Oxford Canal and the River
Cherwell.

Late May, and Chris
disappeared off to Moreton-In-Marsh for 9 days for the Network Rail
'Practical Leadership Programme' (PLP) course

For those that have been,
the infamous 'F Block' is just left-of-centre at the top of the picture.

Broadway Tower (they let
us out on the Sunday) seen from the air, in early December..

.......as seen
here.....

The motley crew of PLP 114

.......and on the last
night, someone lost his karaoke virginity !

To the Bomber Command
Museum at East Kirkby in early June, where Chris took the opportunity to be
taken for a taxy in a Lancaster - his late dad having been a rear gunner on
Lancs, based there during 1944.

A very unusual
opportunity, but no, they didn't let him have a go.

Video to be posted on
YouTube shortly.....

For our French trip this
year we were joined by Andy & Wendy Tandy.

Here we sit down to lunch
before leaving Migennes

The Canal du Nivernais
and surrounding countryside as seen from the top of the cliffs at Saussois -
a climb of 3 contours for those of us that count these things.

Once again Le Boat were kind enough to give
us an upgrade - Magnifique in profile

Heading towards the
summit....

The former lock-keeper's
cottage at Chavance is now a tiny bar/restaurant

Contented customers #1

Contented customers #2 - note
the distinctly rustic ambience..

(incidentally the glass in
the photo is branded 'Get' not 'Git' as someone unkindly suggested)

Contented dogs, who were
later fed with the evening's scraps and leftovers, straight from the pans
!

No trip to the Nivernais
is complete without an evening next to the Etang de Baye

...time for a media
feeding frenzy....

Dusk....

....and early the next morning - Canal du Nivernais to the left of the towpath, the etang to the right

Tunnel vision.....

A glorious sunset at
Auxerre

A bike ride from Bath to
Bradford-on-Avon on a glorious July evening - one of Bonzo's regular 10 mile
workouts.

The Leeds Novotel - 'home'
for the month of August for Chris whilst at 'MOMSchool'

The City Exchange (see
here behind the Church) was 'the office' for the duration.

An interesting visit to
Selby Swing Bridge Signalbox

A freight train rumbles
over (or under, depending on your position)

The bridge keeper does his
stuff.....

Lots of rumbling and
clanking, then around we go....

At last, a
boat trip in England with barbecue weather - this is mid-September

Relaxing after breakfast
in the sunshine - this is the top end of the Droitwich Canal at Hanbury

'Ostentatious' on the
Staffs & Worcs Canal between Stourport and Kidderminster.....

...a lovely week.

Restocking the wine
cellar on another booze-cruise to Calais

Early October and a visit
to Wellesbourne Mountford, near Stratford-on-Avon, home to Vulcan XM655

The word
'ergonomics' hadn't been invented when the Vulcan's cockpit was designed....

A
seriously creepy moment this - left hand holding the nuclear bomb-release.

In November Chris and
(sister) Sheila helped to clear their Mum's loft out.

For Bonzo not so much a
case of HMV as WTF? !

Early Autumn in the woods

Bonzo pauses during an
afternoon run

Back to Foxdown in
mid-November, with Colin Smith, Roger Beazer plus Andy and Wendy
Tandy

Sadly, we
also lost Morris just a couple of weeks ago

Here a very young
cat gets a treat from his owner at The Eagle & Sun at Hanbury. He was
named Morris as in 'Traveller' (see below) in the hope that he would follow
in the pawmarks of his predecessor, William, who used to go everywhere with
us. Morris however was not very keen on this, and not inclined to
settle down at night, particularly on boats. He was eventaully shown
the Red Card after what was subsequently referred to as 'The Penkridge
Incident'.

For anyone under the age
of forty looking at this page, this is the original Morris Traveller.

Morris, chilled out at
home.

Have a great Xmas 2012, and a
happy and prosperous 2013

Chris & Denise

P.S: If by any chance you feel the urge to look at previous years, here are
the links: